Breaking the Ice Ceiling

THE HISTORY AND IMPACT OF GENDER ROLES IN WOMEN'S HOCKEY Written by Mason Braasch, Lifestyle Editor Graphic by Alyssa Cohen, Contributing Graphic Artist

What image comes to mind when you hear the word “hockey?” Most likely, it’s a picture of large, sweaty men with missing teeth, brutally punching each other on the ice. Now, picture a petite middle school girl who loves to wear clothes with sparkles and curl her hair for school. That girl, surprisingly, is a hockey player—she is also me.

When I played hockey during my tween years, I often felt out of place. While I loved the sport, I was ridiculed for being “too girly to be a hockey player,” and told I needed to hang up my hockey skates for figure skates simply because I showed up to an after-school practice wearing a skirt.

Society’s view of hockey is one of mayhem and aggression. While these aspects of the sport are what make it beloved by many, it has trapped female players into specific stereotypes and blocked them from getting the same respect as their male counterparts.1 The inequity of women’s ice hockey is rooted in a history of gendered ideals within the sport that continues to impact female hockey players today.

Although women began to play hockey when it was first introduced to the U.S. in the early nineteenth century, it became more popular in the years

1 “Putting the Struggle for Gender Equality on Ice,” Pique Newsmagazine, accessed Nov. 2021. following World War I—a time when female enrollment in college was on the rise.2 Women’s hockey teams were popular on college campuses and in cities like Boston and New York.3 However, as more and more women took to the sport, debates about how the sport undermined women’s morality and gender roles started to develop.4

Hockey gave women the opportunity to present themselves as strong and established a female image outside of what was traditionally accepted in society. In the same way that flappers became the infamous image of an empowered and untraditional woman, female hockey players were questioned for their morals and threatened by the fragility of conventional gender roles.5

Shortly after they gained popularity in the early 1900s, women’s hockey teams quickly began to dwindle. As amateur athletic sponsors and commercial funders backed off due to criticism surrounding the morality of the sport for women, many teams lacked the funds, resources or support to continue. Although women’s hockey has grown in popularity since the late 1900s, the impact of the sport being framed as a threat to proper female behavior still affects the women in the sport today.6

2 “A Century Ago, Women Played Ice Hockey,” Jstor Daily, accessed Nov. 2021. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. While young boys in the sport often have dreams of being drafted to the National Hockey League (NHL), their female counterparts have far less to hope for. The only professional women’s hockey league in North America, The Premier Hockey Federation, started not long ago in 2015 and has limited opportunities for compensation7 . The gap between male and female players’ salaries speaks for itself—the highest-paid male hockey player in the 2021-2022 season will make $16.4 million compared to the highest-paid player of the Premiere Hockey Federation’s $25,000.8

Hockey is a beloved sport nationwide—especially here in the Midwest. Although women have long excelled at the sport, the narrow perceptions of what a hockey player should look like force young players to try and fit into rigid stereotypes. For hockey to continue to evolve within a shifting sports culture, the industry must create more opportunities for young female players in the future, and let go of existing stereotypes—including the idea that badass hockey players can’t wear sparkly skirts. ■

7 Alex Azzi, “The Current State of Professional Women’s Hockey, Explained,” On Her Turf, Jan. 20, 2021. 8 Brett Knight, “Highest-Paid NHL Players 202122,” Forbes Magazine, Oct. 27, 2021